19 comments:

Anonymous
said...

You know, I used to think that every time someone left the White House it was because they had pissed the president off or the president had pissed them off. How could they just leave a great job like that to "spend more time at home" or to "return to private life." Then I read--just a couple days ago, actually--Ari Fleischer's book. The book was equal part memoir and justification for the Iraq war. But the part that's relevant to this discussion is this: He had dealt with the press for years. He had finally burned out. It happens. You have a great job. You love it. But at some point it gets either boring or more than you particularly care to deal with. At that point, it's best to go. While you're at your peak. Before you make stupid mistakes and end up pissing the president off.

Here's a question that interests me, insofar as it goes to what I perceive to be Bush's most crippling character flaw as an executive: a lot of people have left this administration over the years. Other than Rumsfeld -- and it isn't clear whether he was actually fired at all -- name someone who has been fired by the President.

Maxine Weiss said..."here's a woman who did nothing at all, but have the misfortune of being caught up in political crossfire."

Not true. What Miers did wrong was to accept the offer of the nomination, and then allow the or haemorrhaging to continue after it became clear that her nomination had disintegrated on contact with reality. I agree with HDhouse's assessment. A competent White House counsel would have sized herself up and said "I don't fit the bill."

Other than Rumsfeld -- and it isn't clear whether he was actually fired at all -- name someone who has been fired by the President.

Michael Brown comes to mind immediately. Also, Paul O'Neil and (to a lesser degree) John Snow. If you are counting Rumsfeld as being "fired" then Powell was fired (though I suspect he was relieved to be fired).

a lot of uniformed commentary on this thread. Harriet Miers is extremely competent and uncommonly hard working for a government employee, but then she's really from the private sector and has been taking a huge pay cut for 6 years. she'll have all the work she wants. peace out.

Jim,Brown and Snow resigned; O'Neill also resigned, allegedly under pressure, but bullying someone into quitting is far, far worse than firing them. If bullying O'Neill into quitting is the closest that Bush has come to firing someone, then it's even worse than I thought. ;)

and go home to spend more time with their family....speaking of which, what happened to the witch ...you know the tall idiot from texas ..the female who quit and then bush took her back to be a special pr envoy...gosh, can't think of her name....lol